Tenten's Hyuuga
by One Eyed Jeremy
Summary: Whoever said that your life is the most important thing to you was wrong. Neji realises this as he loses a battle that tears his world apart.


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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishi-sensei does!

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It was dark. It was cold. Everything had turned into a deathly silence, the aftermath of the fifth great shinobi war. The smell of death hung in the air as the bodies of many fallen comrades were scattered around.

No one had won. There were too many casualties on both sides and both had to retreat. The deaths of so many young ninja had been for what? Nothing.

The battlefield was deserted of all living life. Not even the carrion birds dared to disturb the bodies of so many fallen ninja.

The place was truly deserted except for one shinobi, and his name was Hyuuga Neji.

Hyuuga Neji. Just having the name Hyuuga was enough to make you known throughout all of the five great shinobi lands and beyond.

But his name was _Neji_. Hyuuga Neji.

Considered to be one of the most powerful shinobi in the whole of Konohagakure, possibly stronger than Hyuuga Hiashi himself, head of the Hyuuga clan. He was jounin levelled, strong enough to be a candidate for hokage, what was a man of his calibre doing on a massacre field in which everyone else had left? The answer?

A certain chuunin levelled ninja by the name of Tenten.

The mangled remains of a chocolate haired shinobi on the ground, her body broken beyond compare. A single wound to the heart was what had killed her, the blood onher clothes and hair long since dried, but upon her face was a peaceful, serene smile, and her eyes were closed as if she was only asleep, sleeping in a deep dream that she would never wake from.

A silent man knelt over the female ninja, as a single tear rolled down his cheek. He couldn't cry, not anymore, he wasn't allowed to, his training had torn all emotion from him.

His hairtie broken, long strands of dark hair blowing in the wind, his normally white robes torn and covered in mud and blood, he carefully bent over and gently touched his kunoichi's cheek.

Wait, no, she wasn't his, she'd never be his. She was too good for him, too pure.

He was a Hyuuga. Though they wore white robes signalling their purity, their were far from pure. _He _was far from pure.

His hands were tainted with the blood from his family, friends, comrades, blood that could never be washed clean – all for the sake of the Byakugan bloodline.

No, he didn't deserve a girl such as Tenten. Not even a little.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-_

_Flashback – hours ago…_

Neji slowed to a complete stop, his hands immediately moving to a 'Gentle Fist Style' stance straight after completing Kaiten.

A kunoichi with two buns immediately fell back behind the Hyuuga, covering him, even though it was quite obvious that there was no need for that, he had the Byakugan after all.

"Neji," she called breathlessly, her back against his, throwing shuriken and kunai at every possible opponent, hitting them with 100% accuracy. She never missed, not even once.

"There was never a need for you to be here Tenten," Neji commented coldly ignoring Tenten's earlier comments. "I can take care of myself – I'm a Hyuuga after all."

"I know," she said softly, so that Neji didn't catch what she was saying. "Because you're _my _Hyuuga."

"Pardon?"

"Oh Neji," she said cheerily. "Yeah well, you never know. You're too cocky and arrogant for your own good, you know that?"

Neji didn't respond to Tenten, nor did he give any sign that he had heard anything from his fellow teammate.

He did, however, allow her to move closer to him, and the two fought side by side against many different shinobi of varying skill levels. Their movements were perfectly co-ordinated and synchronised, evidence of the long and hard hours they had spent training together.

Tenten's reactions were slowing now. Her movements were less graceful, motions less fluid and her breathing was jagged.

-x-x-x-x-x-

They had been fighting for many hours now, and though they were both exhausted, Tenten had definitely taken a turn for the worst.

"You should stop, Tenten, or you may just get yourself killed," Neji muttered, halfway through attacking just one of a never ending stream of shinobi with his Juuken and closing off numerous of his opponent's chakra points causing him to drop to the ground and writhe in pain before he was killed.

Neji's own chakra, however, was also diminishing quickly and Neji was slightly concerned that his chakra would run out altogether as it was already running dangerously low.

"That's cute," Tenten began, dealing with her own group of ninja. "And weird," she added after some thought. "Hyuuga Neji, worried about _me_? That's freaky."

"And no, I'm not gonna sit around doing nothing while you're out here, risking your life like a good little shinobi does, that's not what girlfriends do!"

Neji opened his mouth to protest that she wasn't his 'girlfriend' when Tenten cut through him, saying a wise thing she'd learnt from Kakashi. "Those who break the rules of the shinobi are scum," she began and Neji was silenced immediately. He'd heard this line many times before.

"But those who abandon their friends are worst than scum. They are the lowest of the low, traitorous shinobi who deserves to suffer whatever evil fate that would've befallen their teammate. I would never abandon you, Neji, and I know you wouldn't abandon me, so there's no use trying to change my mind – I'm going to fight with you, and, if worst comes to worst, die with you, because there's no way I could live without you. Remember that, Neji Hyuuga."

Tenten then proceeded to turn around and continued fighting again, not speaking to the pale eyed Hyuuga for a long while, for though she was smiling, inside, her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces at the same time because, somehow, she knew that this was the last time she and Neji would ever be together, at least not in this world, not in this life. Soon, they would be all alone, and she knew she'd never be complete again – not without Neji.

Little did she know that Neji was thinking the exact same thing.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The sun was setting, Leaf and Sound ninja were killing each other, and Neji knew that the battle would soon be coming to an end.

Both sides had suffered casualties and both were too tired to drag on this war for much longer. One side would sooner, rather than later, cave in and the opposing side would be victorious.

However, things weren't looking too good on Konoha's side and Neji realised that all the ninjas from Konoha had to accept the fact – they were fighting a losing battle.

"Well well well, what do we have here?" drawled an arrogant, taunting voice. "A scared little bird perhaps?"

Neji whipped around, standing in his all too famous Hyuuga stance, ready to pulverise his enemy.

But Neji felt that there was something wrong. How could this person sneak up on him, Hyuuga Neji, without giving away his presence at all?

With a look at Tenten, he sent her a sign that she was to leave him. Now. And this time, she didn't hesitate to move.

"Have you come to die?" Neji asked the man that had confronted him. No, not a man, the person who stood before him was little more than a boy.

He would've been maybe a year older than Neji himself. He had dark skin and and extra pair of arms hanging along his side.

The stranger smirked, evidently enjoying his opponents initial look of confusion, followed by his quick analysis of other's skills, which he doubted was very high.

The strangers smirk widened when he realised he could use the plae eyed boys arrogance to his advantage. Finally, he spoke.

"I'm sorry, dying isn't on my to do list today, maybe in…never?" he replied sarcastically, he too taking up fighting stance.

"Who are you?" Neji asked, as the two boys circled each other, strategizing and deciding when was the best moment to attack. Both had brilliant minds that worked in pretty much the same way as the other's. This was simply a battle of who could endure the longest, or who could outwit the other first.

The other boy paused for a moment before answering Neji's question which still hung in the air. "Isn't it polite to offer your own name before asking for another's?"

"True," Neji agreed. "But I believe you already know mine."

The dark haired boy chuckled. "True, true, Hyuuga. Well, whatever. My name is Kidomaru. In your dying moments, remember my name as the name of the person who killed you!"

At this moment, Kidoumaru lunged at Neji, attacking him with spiders that seemed to come from within his fingers, spinning web in all directions with the intention to entangle the Hyuuga up.

"Byakuagn!" Neji shouted, activating his Kekei Genkai, allowing him to dodge the spiders – barely. He grunted in pain as he landed, his body had over exerted himself.

"Tut tut tut," came a mocking voice from within the shadows. "Too slow little bird. I expected better from the great Hyuuga Neji."

Neji hissed vehemently at Kidomaru's words. He was tired and Kidomaru knew it. He was playing on Neji's one great weakness – fatigue.

If Neji didn't suffer from the one thing that most humans fall prey to, he would be invincible.

Unfortunately, as powerful as he as, Hyuuga Neji was still human.

Suddenly the voice returned. "Game over Hyuuga," it called, the voice echoing over a distance. "I win. Now…die!"

Neji spun around to see a single, flying arrow speeding towards him at a speed impossible to dodge, even with the Byakugan.

Neji realised he was going to die. He readied himself, preparing himself to accept death's embrace. At least when he left this world, he could be glad about one thing – he'd protected Tenten from Kidomaru as much as he could.

"At least I won't have to see her die," he thought sadly as he prepared for that piercing feeling as the arrow stabbed through him and that searing feeling before it all disappears and he was thrown into the depths of hell.

It never came. The pain that accompanied that flying arrow never came. No, what Neji experienced next was something much worse than dying – he heard the screams of pain from the one he loved, Tenten.

Tenten fell to her knees, clutching her chest. A pool of blood began to form around her as blood seeped through her fingers, dripping heavily onto the ground.

Contrary to what Neji had thought, Tenten hadn't left him. No' she'd been watching, waiting, for her chance to strike. But she never got that chance. Unlike Neji, she'd seen Kidomaru fire that arrow, she saw where it was headed. She realised that there was no way Neji could avoid it, so she did the one thing she could do for him. And that was to be a human shield – to die for him.

Finally, a chance where she could be useful, she'd thought, as she flew down past the branches from her high vantage point in the trees. Whenever they'd went on missions, Tenten was always the one needing to be saved, like when Kisame had trapped them in his water prison jutsu, Neji had been the one to break her free and rescue her.

Well not this time. This time, the one that would be doing the saving would be Tenten. Tenten and Tenten alone. She wouldn't let others interfere with this no matter what. This was her chance to shine.

_Drip drip drip drip…_

It hurt. The pain as the arrow sliced through her body, ripping her insides to ribbons hurt more than anything else she had ever felt before. But it was worth t. Just to give her Neji another chance at life, even if it was only for a while more.

Tenten would go through suffering a hundred times worse than this if only her Neji could go on living for yet another day.

_Her _Neji. Tenten loved the way it sounded when she'd said it. Too bad it could never be true. He could never reciprocate her feelings.

He had a family, a career, a _future_, while she bumbled on through life as an orphaned teenager, a ninja forever doomed to be an average shinobi reaching only to the rank of Chuunin.

It was only natural that one of such high class and dignity would never stoop so low as to fall for one such as her.

Still, she was glad that, at least she still ad the opportunity to be by his side, and that he never pushed her away from him.

But now it was time to let that all go, and fall from this life, into the next.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Neji could only watch on as Tenten took the blow that was meant for him – watched as the arrow shot cleanly through her body, landing on the ground beside him, quivering slightly from the impact.

He could only watch as the love of his life was killed right in front of his eyes and he could do nothing to prevent it.

And in that very moment, the anger he never thought he had, was aroused. Kidomaru was going to pay. He was going to pay…with his life.

When Tenten had defended him from Kidomaru's attack, he had time to notice from whee the arrow was shot. He once again activated his Byakugan when Kidomaru spoke once more.

"Hah, guess you got lucky, lttle bird. Looks like that girl saved your insignificant life. A pity too, she was quite beautiful you know, but I suppose useless people are meant to be destroyed.

Neji clenched his fist in an attempt to destroy his newly found anger. He hadn't felt like this since his father had died at the hands of the main family. He couldn't afford to keep feeling like this, he had to calm down or anger would cloud his judgement, in which he could make some fatal mistakes.

"Do not," Neji growled, his whole body shaking, " insult Tenten in front of me – ever."

"Aww, is the little birdy in love," Kidomaru teased, with that comment serving no purpose but to anger the Hyuuga even further.

Neji never really knew what had happened after Kidomaru had said those words. He remembered pinpointing Kidomaru's exact location by allowing himself to be injured by Kidomaru's arrow again, but this time, he was ready, so it wasn't fatal.

He'd managed to get Kidomaru into the range of his eight trigrams sixty four palms, and using it on him, killing the older boy instantly.

After killing Kidomaru, he let his anger consume him and had attacked every enemy ninja on sight, fighting and killing until he could do no more of both, till he had exhausted all his reserves and until he could barely stand. Willpower alone kept him standing.

His appearance a mess, Neji headed back to where his kunoichi lay.

"Tenten,"

He whispered, looking at her oval face, her dark brown hair, her chocolate eyes, and wondering if she could ever forgive him. Tenten, however, merely looked at him sadly.

""What's wrong?" she asked softly, unable to speak any louder.

"I'm...sorry, Tenten,I mean…uugh…you shouldn't have to die, there was no need for you to die, Tenten! It, it's all, all my fault!"

Tenten's lips broke into a slight smile as she touched her pretty boy's face. "What are you saying sorry for, you idiot? I'm the one who went and got myself killed."

Neither Tenten nor Neji bothered to hide the fact that Tenten was going to die. There was no point towards it, both of them never liked hiding the truth in lies they deemed unnecessary. It would've been to painful and would've shown on their faces anyways.

"I knew it was a good idea to stalk you," Tenten continued, wincing slightly, as though it hurt for her to continue speaking. "You're so cocky and arrogant, hah, if only you knew, I figure you would get overconfident sooner or later, and some random person way below your league would kick your ass. Guess I was right after all. Now I can finally say 'I told you so!'"

Tenten laughed slightly, but suddenly had a coughing fit, coughing up blood in the process. Neji immediately sat up and helped Tenten calm down before speaking again.

"Tenten," he started seriously. "This isn't the time to be joking around!"

"I know," she conceded, cosing her eyes and smiling, "But you know what, no matter what happens to me, you'll always be my Hyuuga."

And with those final, parting words, heard only by a certain Hyuuga, Tenten fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, never to wake again.

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**LOLZ! Yay, and with that, this story is finished. (Maybe.) I originally wanted to write this because I've read so many stories of Neji dying to save Tenten, but not many showing Tenten saving Neji, and I was sick of that. I wanted to show off Tenten's 'Girls are just as good as boys' attitude, so that's where this story came from. **

**Anyways, this was originally meant to be a one-shot fic, but if there's enough support, I'll turn this into a chaptered fic, talking about how Neji copes with the loss of his angel.**

**So, please review! You know you want to!:D**


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